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Daily Mail
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Gavin Newsom says Trump is not 'all there' mentally and SOBS while accusing the president of making his teen daughter cry during LA riots
California Governor Gavin Newsom continued his all out-messaging war against President Donald Trump after he decided to send federal troops to California to help quell the riots in Los Angeles. Newsom painted himself and his family as a victim of Trump's aggressive posture toward California, revealing that the president made his teenage daughter cry. 'I have a 15-year-old who quite literally came home from school crying because she was told on her last day of school — God as my witness — because she was told her daddy was getting arrested,' Newsom revealed on The Daily podcast hosted by the New York Times. Newsom grew emotional as he spoke about the incident, his already hoarse voice cracking. He was referring to a comment that Trump made to reporters after he was asked if the governor should be arrested by his immigration czar Tom Homan. 'I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity but I think it would be a great thing,' Trump said, when he returned to the White House from Camp David on Monday. Newsom followed up by defying the president, daring him to follow through on his promise. 'I told the President, get it over with. Arrest me,' he said in an interview. Newsom also questioned Trump's mental state in a recent interview after speaking with him on the phone. 'He's lost it. He's lost a step. I saw him trip on the steps today. He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable of even a train of thought,' Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, told FOXLA in an interview. The White House mocked Newsom's newfound concern about the president's health. '[R]ich, coming from Gavin Newsom, who in this past election tried to gaslight and lied to the American public about Joe Biden's decline,' White House communications director Steven Cheung told Axios on Thursday. The California governor also lamented that the president started calling him by the nickname 'Newscum.' 'Yeah, it's the president of United States calling someone scum, Newscum, which is, for what it's worth, what I think a seventh grader used to call me on Baltimore Street in Corte Madera, California,' he said. Newsom blamed the president for the violent riots in Los Angeles as protestors burned cars and waved Mexican flags. The LA protests descended into chaos as people continued to fight against ICE in California. 'These are images that Donald Trump created … he wants to divide us, he wants to attack the rule of law, he wants to attack Democracy,' Newsom said to FOXLA. The California governor continues to position politically against the president, insisting Trump went to far by calling the National Guard and federal troops to help quell the riots. 'He's not for peacemaking, he's here for war, he wants a civil war on the streets of America,' Newsom said. He also mocked Trump's military parade scheduled on Saturday to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army. 'He's going to be out there in his little birthday suit on Saturday, and he's going to do his dictator Kim Jong Un parade and try to one-up Putin so Putin feels threatened,' Newsom said. 'Weakness, that's all that is, masquerading as strength. And I get that. I'm not naive about that, but I'm not backing down.'
Times
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Times
Could a padel holiday be the ultimate family fun — even for teens?
Andrew Parsons, the head of tennis and padel at the holiday firm Mark Warner, considers the padel racket in his hand. Halfway between a table tennis bat and a squashed kitchen colander, it looks about as powerful as a wet handshake. 'The thing about padel,' he tells the assembled Newsom family, 'is that it's so easy to pick up. You don't have to hit the ball hard. You don't need to master an overarm serve. And after just a couple of hours even people who don't enjoy tennis will be playing meaningful rallies.' As a result, he tells us, it's thought to be the world's fastest-growing sport. 'So let's get started, shall we?' he says — and retreats to the edge of our padel court at the company's Paleros Beach Resort in western Greece. I try one of the sport's signature underarm serves, over the net towards our younger son, Ben, who's ten. He rushes towards the ball and whacks it enthusiastically. All five of us — Andrew, my wife, Vera, our elder son, Sam, Ben and I — then watch it sail high into the sky; over the glass walls of the court, over the perimeter fencing on the other side, and into the deep, grassy meadow beyond. A horse wanders over and gives it a sniff, in case we've just lobbed over an apple. 'Right, let's give that another go,' Andrew says, with a studied sense of calm. I, meanwhile, glance over at Sam, just in time to see him roll his eyes. And I feel a little flutter of panic. Sam is 17. It feels as if the dust has only just settled on his GCSEs, yet suddenly we're signing up for university open days and talking about his gap year. Already it's as clear as Mediterranean sunlight that as soon as his A-levels are done, next summer, he wants to get started on life's big adventure. He'll be out of our front door sooner than you can say Australian Working Holiday Visa. And then his bedroom will be empty and its air still and, well, I don't want to get emotional about it, but — 'Will you stop being so emotional about it?' Vera groaned when I welled up one morning, raising the prospect of him leaving. 'Let's just concentrate on having some fun with him before he goes.' And with her usual, clear-eyed pragmatism she suggested that we learn to play something together, as a family, that we can pick up whenever he comes back home. 'And let's do it on a holiday somewhere sunny,' she added, with a glint in her eye. 'With lots of other things to try. Just in case we hate it.' • Read our full guide to Greece So here we are, by the glittering waters of the Ionian Sea, 20 miles by transfer bus from Preveza airport. A beachside club of well-spaced low-rise buildings, Paleros is girdled by irrigated gardens, and in the sharpening sunshine of early summer it would be a dazzling place just to sit and stare. At the hot pinks of the bougainvillea, perhaps. Or at the view south towards the island of Zakynthos. Its dusty blues are so pale and distant it seems more like a daydream than an actual place. Few of its guests, however, are sitting still. This is Mark Warner, after all. It doesn't do fly and flop — on top of its two new padel courts, it offers an energetic array of sports facilities that come as part of the holiday package. Two pools, a gym, a spa, three tennis courts, outdoor fitness classes, guided runs, a fleet of road and mountain bikes as well as dinghies, catamarans, paddleboards, windsurfers and kayaks. They're all here, along with informal coaching sessions and (if you pay extra) structured courses. Activity clubs for 2 to 17-year-olds are included in the holiday price too. In other words, if you're even a little bit outdoorsy, it's like being a six-year-old in a Smyths Toys Superstore, let loose on your birthday with a fistful of vouchers to spend. You don't know where to start. And therein lies our problem. Padel is our chosen game, but now we're here, we're finding it hard to stay focused. Ben has joined a flock of ten-year-olds in the kids' club that's almost as noisy as the sparrows in the eucalyptus trees. Vera is one of the stars of the fitness class scene, and I can't help jumping into the nearest single-handed dinghy. After all, the ever-willing staff make it easy for you. They'll discuss your sailing ability, then rig an appropriate boat and be waiting, waist-deep in the sea, to catch hold of your bow when you sail back into shore. • Workout, eat, sleep, repeat: I've found the perfect place for fitness and fun Meanwhile Sam, who is considering a degree in marine biology, is taking a tantalising step towards his future on a short £120 scuba-diving course, run by the independent InDepth diving school. It begins with a couple of pool sessions in the resort and culminates with two open-water dives on the far side of Paleros's sheltered bay. Fifteen metres below the surface of the Med, he's had a glimpse of just how exciting the next few years of his life could be. So it's no wonder that the thought of padel with his family is a bit of an eye-roll. And in the first couple of days after our private lesson with Andrew, it doesn't get any more gripping. You can thank my attempts to help Ben and Sam with their backhands for that, courtesy of endless drills, and I begin to wonder if our only bonding will be over the resort's bountiful breakfast and dinner buffets. We can't get enough of its shaved chicken gyros with pitta bread, red onions, zingy tzatziki and ripe red tomatoes. Or its chocolate cake. Then, midweek, I wander over to the courts during one of the resort's daily social padel sessions, where the coaches partner guests up together for impromptu matches. And I get an eyeful of the sport's real potential. • 28 of the best places to visit in Greece It comes in the form of ten-year-old Archie Delasalle. He's at Paleros courtesy of Nick and Nion, his mum and dad, and he's here primarily to play tennis. He is, after all, training with the Middlesex under-11 county squad. But like every tennis player on holiday here, he's curious about padel. Now he's joined a match with three Norwegians more than twice his age — two lithe, sporty brothers, Matthias and Markus, and their friend Bjorn, who looks for all the world like an off-duty Viking. None of them plays padel regularly and yet, together, they're putting on a display of racket sport that's as balletic, intricate and explosive as anything I've seen. Sharp, ten-shot rallies, airborne overhead smashes, crafty lobs: their match has it all. And it's so competitive that at one point Matthias slams his arm into the court's back wall in a bid to return a shot from his brother. His other arm is already in a sling. 'Why on earth did you do that?' I ask him afterwards. 'Because I hate losing to my brother,' he says without a flicker of a smile. The next day I ditch the drills. The Newsoms play their first proper padel match. There are three things I'll never forget about that game. First is how Ben and Sam insist on playing together, against their parents. Second is how, without warning, Sam starts playing low, cross-court shots that leave me flailing in their wake. When I ask him where he learnt to do that he laughs. 'Nobody taught me,' he says. 'It's the obvious shot to make when I'm playing someone as old as you.' And the third thing is what happens at the end of the set, when Vera and I snatch a 6-4 victory. I've noticed that the afternoon breeze is strengthening, and tell everyone I'm going for a sail. 'You're going nowhere,' says Sam emphatically, his eyes blazing. 'We're playing best of three.' Suddenly, padel rackets don't seem so puny any more. Sean Newsom was a guest of Mark Warner, which has seven nights' half-board from £791pp, including flights and transfers ( Would you go on a padel holiday? Let us know in the comments By Sean Newsom Invented in Mexico in the 1960s, padel has grown explosively lately, especially in Spain, where in 2024 the International Padel Federation estimated there were 17,000 courts. The Lawn Tennis Association reckons there are about 200,000 players in the UK. • Meet the padel addicts spending £100 a week Padel is usually a game for two pairs and courts are roughly half the size of the ones used for tennis. They have glass walls at the back and sides, with entrance openings and wire cages alongside the net. The basic principle is similar to tennis: you can either volley the ball as soon as it has crossed the net or let it bounce once. But you can also play it off a wall — unless it didn't bounce before hitting it (in which case it's ruled out). The rules around serving add complications, but not many, and scoring is the same as tennis, with some playing sudden-death points at 40-40, instead of needing to have a two-point advantage to win.
